By Charles Ratliff
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Ten minutes after Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo visited Manzanillo last Saturday, Mexican army and state rescue workers discontinued the search for bodies trapped in the rubble of last week's magnitude 7.6 quake.
That did not stop UA journalism graduate student Kent Alexander and his dog Marco, a 6-year-old Belgian Malinois, from conducting their own search.
When Alexander and Marco arrived in Manzanillo Saturday, they immediately set to work, despite being told by the government, "we found everyone there is to be found."
He said they discovered 23 bodies and a 9-month-old survivor in 21/2 days.
"I have a tendency to disregard what people tell me," said Alexander, who also is a Wildcat news reporter. "I trust my dog and my experience."
Alexander, formerly an officer for the Mexican attorney general and a dog trainer for Global Training Academy out of San Antonio, Texas, said he received a call from Commandante Salvadore Ortega the night of Oct. 10 with a request for assistance in search and rescue operations in and around Manzanillo.
Alexander said the Mexican authorities called him because his dogs are trained to sniff out narcotics, but are also qualified in search and rescue operations.
He said he had to scramble to put together his equipment and outfit Marco, but, the biggest factor that prevented him from getting to Manzanillo sooner, he said, was money.
"There's no telling how many lives we could've saved had we gotten there sooner," Alexander said.
He said the Mexican government promised to pay his way and cover all expenses, but, because the economy is in such a shambles, Alexander said he wasn't counting on anything and set about raising the cash to pay his own way.
June Head, director of Northwest Interfaith Center of Tucson, said she made a small cash donation to Alexander's efforts. She said she verified his intentions through Ed Parker, president of United Way in Tucson.
"I had read they had found all the bodies and I wondered why he was even going," Head said.
Alexander said AeroMexico "gave away a seat" to him and Marco, but he still had to come up with most of the $200 in taxes on the ticket, and expense money for his stay in Mexico.
So, he called Tucson auto dealer Jim Click, who donated the rest of the money Alexander needed.
Isabel Montijo, with the American Red Cross in Tucson, said Alexander approached her for assistance, but said the Red Cross could not help him unless the Mexican Red Cross had specifically requested his assistance, which they hadn't.
When he finally arrived in Manzanillo Saturday morning Ÿ after being told rescue efforts had ceased Ÿ Alexander said he cut Marco loose and the dog found seven bodies in 10 minutes at the Hotel Costa Real site.
From then on, Alexander said he and Marco worked mostly in Santiago and Salagua, just north of Manzanillo, the hardest hit of the poorer areas.
After two days and 23 bodies, Alexander said he gave Marco a rest from the heat and humidity and spent most of Monday photographing the damaged villages.
Then, on Monday evening, he said he went back to the hotel to gather his baggage. On the way to the airport, he told the taxi driver to stop at a crumbled house along the Boulevard Miguel de la Madrid so he could take a photo.
Alexander heard a whimper and thought it was a dog. He turned Marco loose. The dog went right to the source Ÿ a baby trapped beneath a steel girder.
The taxi driver went to call an ambulance while Alexander said he began moving rocks.
When the ambulance arrived, Alexander said he got out of their way.
"They went right to work," he said, "and started an IV immediately."
Alexander said the baby had been trapped for six days and doctors confirmed that the baby suffered from dehydration. A later phone call by him revealed the baby was doing fine.
"We'd driven by this house ten times," Alexander said, "and never thought about searching it."